September Tag - Tim’s 2015 Tag Challenge

Here’s my take on Tim’s tag for this month……

I set myself an additional challenge this month of using exactly what I had in my stash and not being tempted to nip out for the odd Ranger product…(that proved extremely difficult).

For my base tag I used watercolour card-stock “swooooooshed” through a mix of Picket Fence, Broken China and Bundled Sage Distress Stains which I activated with a good spritz of Biscotti (Perfect Pearls Mist) to added a little glimmer.  I inked the edge with Bundled Sage Distress Ink. 

I absolutely loved the end result but unfortunately the glimmer is a little too delicate and subtle to be picket up by the photos.

For the top layer of the tag a small sample packet of Canon photo paper, that came with my new printer, came in useful.  I used this for my alcohol inks and I must say it held up pretty well.  I only have five alcohol inks in my stash so I made do with four of these: Aqua, Pesto, Snowcap (Adirondack) and Pumpkin (Colour Solutions) plus a bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol B.P. for my blending solution.  

I had a fine ol’time playing with these until I had enough samples to choose from. 

But by leaving out Pumpkin I came up with three subtle blue/green samples which I thought would be perfect for the nature theme that was forming in my mind.

The dragonfly image (IndigoBlu- code IND0133) was stamped in black Archival ink with a combo of Hydrangea and French UltraMarine Archival ink to highlight the texture (Dimensional Resist Paste by Crafty Notions) of the stencilled leaves (6x6 Leaf Swirl stencil by Imagination Crafts) and also the edge of the paper. 

I resorted to some Ranger acetate packaging for the wings of my dragonfly which I found that I could heat gently with a heat tool and mould to add a little more interest. Good ol’ Glossy Accents worked a treat for gluing the acetate wings to my stamped dragonfly image.

Green and peacock blue 0.3mm wire (Crazywire Co) and a few painted brads secured the Idea-ology “Observations” band in place on some hand-ripped black card-stock.

As always, I backed my tag with black card-stock and made a small charm of this month’s tag logo which was secured with a couple of Ranger jump-rings  on coloured seam binding, I tied in place with some ombre eyelash ribbon from my stash. 

And an image of Tim’s tag was glued to the back of my tag to show where my inspiration had come from........BUT play did not stop there. I made another tag from practise pieces along the way.

 I had a die cut manilla tag left over from last month’s challenge which I used to mop up left over Distress Stain.

A very vibrant piece of my alcohol ink samples just called to go behind the die cut tag and left over Dimensional Resist paste added texture through a reverse chicken wire Crafters Companion stencil. I stuck to the combo of Hydrangea and French UltraMarine Archival ink to again highlight the texture paste and the edge of my tag.  

This time my dragonfly image was stamped on a scrap of the coloured watercolour card left over from the base of my earlier tag, then fussy cut before being glued onto the die cut tag. Again I used Ranger acetate packaging for the wings to add dimension and I ‘popped’ the eyes with a touch of Glossy Accent.

Coloured seam binding and a touch of orangy yellow satin ribbon finished off my tag at the top but no logo charm this time.

I have to say I just loved the contrast of the alcohol base card behind the more muted die cut top layer on this tag.. it really worked for me and once again, it’s thanks to Tim. His monthly challenge really does provide inspiration.

So here are my two tags side by side... the same techniques on both but totally different to look at. 

As always have fun playing and thanks so much for taking time to have a wee peek at my offerings.

Carol. x